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Berlin Trip : Manchester Airport – Escape Lounge T3

With just my usual element of incompetence I didn’t get many photos of this lounge as it was so busy, so I’m using a promotional photo to add just a little colour to arrangements. I got into the lounge earlier than the three hours they allow before the flight and I noticed that there was a sign saying the lounge was full, but you could join their on-line waiting list. This has worked well for me at Stansted Airport and so I signed up to patiently wait and as there wasn’t an estimated waiting time I went to ask at the reception desk, but she kindly said I could come in immediately as I was on my own. Most lovely and there were no issues with using my Priority Pass card.

Another promotional photo…. There’s no charge for alcoholic drinks, other than a surcharge for Prosecco, but it’s all bar service.

I found a power point that worked to charge my ailing phone and it might be evident that this isn’t a promotional photo taken by the lounge. The food selection was actually surprisingly good, there were a range of different sandwiches and I very much liked the stew and dumplings. The beer is the John Smiths Extra Smooth and my friend James would have been proud of me for choosing that. The stew had a depth of flavour and the dumplings had just the right firmness to them, they were the best part of my airport visit to be fair.

More stew and dumplings with some rice added to the mix, alongside a Guinness this time as well as a coffee.

The lounge remained very busy and for about twenty minutes the entire Manchester United youth team came in, although they didn’t eat or drink much, so I’m not sure if there was much value to that. And this lounge is expensive, just shy of £40 for walk-ins, although cheaper rates are available for advance purchase. Despite how busy it was, I thought that the staff were doing really very well to keep up and they remained friendly throughout. The lounge is unusually highly rated, so there must be an element of the excellent customer service shining through there.

When writing about the terminal in my last enthralling post, I mentioned that it was used nearly entirely for Ryanair and British Airways passengers. Most of the angry reviews are from customers of the latter, not least this:

“In thirty years of traveling and using lounges all over the world, tonight I encountered something for the first time: no seats. Not just crowded but not one single seat available. A small, shabby looking lounge to begin with has outdone itself. So ahead of an 11-hour flight, I now have to stand around until boarding. Shame, BA.”

There are a few angry BA passengers out there…. The signage is initially just a little unclear as it points two ways for the Escape Lounge, but it appears that they have a second area. It was all closed off when I was there, but I suspect it’s opened up during busier periods of the year, as otherwise this lounge must be regularly at near capacity. Anyway, I was very pleased with this lounge visit, I left with sufficient power in my devices, a couple of beers and more than enough food. What more could I want from life?

December 9, 2024
Berlin Trip : Manchester Airport

After a very lovely weekend of six of us celebrating my birthday early in Manchester (I’ll get to posting about that soon enough….), Liam kindly dropped me off at Manchester Airport. He didn’t offer to pay £5 to drop me off in front of the terminal (mind you, he wouldn’t pay £5 to drop himself off, hence the famous walking incident he took his wife on at Stansted many years, but I digress), so I had to make do with the free bus shuttle that runs every fifteen minutes.

Seventeen minutes after being dropped off the shuttle arrived and I was the only person on it. I was departing from Terminal 3 and although I wasn’t asked this, I proffered this information to the friendly driver anyway. We get to Terminal 1 and he calls down the bus that this is where I can get off. That was actually very helpful, I hadn’t realised Terminal 1 and 3 are next to each other so I might have been sitting on a shuttle bus going around and around before realising what was happening. Terminal 3 is a very odd mix, it’s effectively only used by Ryanair and British Airways.

And here we are at Manchester Airport Terminal 3, the first time I’ve flown from here.

I always try and be positive, but this is a bloody dreadful airport terminal. Looking at surveys, Manchester Airport regularly appears at the bottom of the lists and this terminal is the worst rated. There was no seating available before security so I tried to go through. My boarding pass was rejected at the automatic gate and a staff member came over to check and he suggested trying again later. That’s not overly helpful in terms of I didn’t know when “later” would be, although it transpired that you can only go through 3 hours and 40 minutes before the flight. That doesn’t feel like a time that anyone might actually guess, it might have been useful for them to mention this in signage as some airports do. Anyway, I’m then stuck waiting there for the 15 minutes (I was just under 4 hours early, as some things never change) trying not to get in the way of other passengers and unsure where to wait for the best.

I have huge amounts of sympathy for airport security staff, it’s a thankless task in very many ways. They were always polite here, but some of them looked worn down and there was no shortage of rude passengers. The queueing system was a bit illogical, crammed into too small a space and just uncomfortable, it made things feel a little too much like a cattle pen. The signage in the airport was muddled to say the least and the airport management hadn’t overly troubled themselves with having the airport terminal cleaned. I think much of this is that they simply don’t have enough space, there are too many passengers in the space that they have and there’s not enough seating. I don’t need to sit down (being young and strapping, or something like that….) but many people do, with the set-up here feeling sub-optimal. There is though a massive investment going in to improve the space, so matters might improve somewhat over the next couple of years.

Anyway, after 25 minutes getting through security, which seemed longer than it actually was, I thought I’d try and get into a lounge a little early to escape the chaos and limited facilities. More on which in the next post….

December 9, 2024
Wizz Air (Poznan to Luton Airport)

Back to Poznan Airport and this is a sculpture by Henryk Gida Bakalarczyk, it makes quite an impact in the departures area just before security.

There’s my flight to Luton Airport, using the Wizz Air all you can fly pass that I decided to get to try it out, so that means it’s £8.99 for the flight.

After visiting the lounge and going through border control, the non-Schengen area of the airport is quite sizeable with plenty of seating.

They were boarding the aircraft early and, as ever, it was all efficient and organised.

And boarding.

I take these photos in the hope of capturing the registration of the aircraft, otherwise I have to look it up. And it isn’t visible, so I did have to go and look it up, it’s G-WUNA, I don’t think it’s an aircraft I’ve been on before. By chance, it was the first anniversary of Wizz Air bringing this aircraft into service, but they didn’t provide us with cake or anything to mark that milestone.

And safely back into Luton Airport. It wasn’t the most comfortable journeys as I was in the middle seat and felt a little cramped on this journey, but it’s a relatively short flight and I amused myself watching stuff on my phone. There were some winds from Storm Darragh which added some extra excitement in terms of the landing, although it was otherwise uneventful. There was absolutely no delay at all with getting through border control as there was no queue, so plenty of staffing once again at Luton Airport.

It was very lovely, thank you Wizz Air. I still like this all you can fly pass, it wasn’t the longest stay in Poznan, but there seemed to be a suitable choice of destinations that I could go to. I’m already occupied with other things this week, but hopefully I’ll get to use the pass again in December and perhaps quite a lot in the new year.

December 8, 2024
Poznan – Poznan Airport Business Executive Lounge

With a couple of hours to kill, I popped into the airport’s business lounge using my Priority Pass card.

It wasn’t overly busy by any means, there was a couple in the lounge who were sitting at the far end. There’s a range of seating areas with a choice of high and low seating, although some areas of the lounge felt just a little dark. There were plenty of power points and since it was so quiet, I opted to sit near the food. I do that quite a lot actually….

It’s not a hugely decadent selection, primarily a few baguettes, some slightly unexciting cold cuts and quite a lot of chocolate.

And biscuits. Those chocolates are lovely incidentally, they appear a lot in Polish lounges.

Even I wasn’t going to have a beer at 08:00 in the morning (well, not today), I instead went for coffee and orange juice. And an overly sweet, but still tasty cookie type thing, and a fair few chocolates alongside a yoghurt.

For walk-ins there would be a charge of just under £20 for entry and that’s towards the lower end for what lounges charge. That’s not actually that bad compared to restaurants at the airport, you could have had a few drinks, some light snacks, coffees and the like for that money, so it’s not unreasonable. I’m not sure it’s worth that in the morning, which explains perhaps why it was nearly empty during my visit, but since I’ve got an unlimited pass it doesn’t make much difference.

The reviews are broadly quite poor, people aren’t thrilled by the lack of food choice, but the lounge isn’t really ever offering anything like that, they describe their offering as:

“Passengers will be able to take advantage of the catering offer, which includes hot and cold drinks, sandwiches, sweet and salty snacks, and a wide selection of alcoholic beverages.”

And I thought that the lounge delivered on that.

One customer a few weeks ago was far from impressed….

“It really is one of the worst if not the worst lounge I have ever visited. Basically there is nearly nothing there, no food, some candies, nothing is replenished by the staff who just walks around and pretends there is nothing to be done. Coffee machine was broken, wine tap broken, sandwiches ran out, toilets were dirty and wet. I could hear people paying for the at the exit and seriously they paid for nothing. This place demands a clear fix from the bottom up to the staff itself”

I wouldn’t go that far, I liked that it was very clean if nothing else. The team members looked a little bored, but they were friendly and I can’t imagine that they had a great deal to do. And they would have had to get up very early to come here to work, so they were probably exhausted already. I think there has to be some recognition that Poznan isn’t that busy an airport, so a lounge here is inevitably going to have limitations in what it can offer. Anyway, a positive experience and I appreciated having a little quiet spot to sit for a couple of hours.

December 8, 2024
Poznan – Hotel ibis Poznan Polnoc

I’m restarting my project to start visiting every Accor hotel in Poland (I mean, everyone has to have a hobby?), something which I was half-way through, and I might bring back my little Accor web-site that got a little bit lost in a server upgrade. Here’s the list that needs updating about which Accor hotels I’ve got to in Poland (which I accept isn’t riveting for anyone, but it’s handy for me to know). Or server downgrade as it evidently became. This hotel is located around six miles from the centre of Poznan and cost £34 for the night, although I got it free with rewards points from previous stays. I didn’t eat at KFC, but it’s certainly got a handy takeaway option nearby for those who want it.

The check-in process was a bit convoluted as it took a little while to be welcomed, but the team members were friendly and helpful. Unusually I didn’t get a keycard wallet, they just put a small post-it note with the room number on the keycard which seems an interesting way of going about matters. The room is the older style of Ibis design, but it’s one that I don’t dislike and it’s better than some of the newer designs in my mind. It was clean and organised, everything worked and there were no noise disturbances either internally or externally.

I had to ask about the welcome drink as although I wasn’t overly in need of one, I’m interested to see what the options there are. As expected as this is now commonplace, they’re using the app to do this, which makes matters easier. I noticed this list at reception which seems to be implemented at a few Accor hotels in Poland, which is odd as I thought they were all operated by Orbis, which limits the choice that others offer.

I went for the Żywiec Białe, which is a very agreeable wheat beer that I’ve had on a few occasions. For a small beer there was quite a faff about the procedure to get one, involving me signing a bit of paper, getting a receipt from reception and one from the till.

The reviews for the hotel generally are positive and I thought it represented a suitable and lower priced stay in Poznan. It’s not the easiest hotel to get to as it’s not located in the centre of Poznan, and it’s perhaps better for people with cars, but there is public transport there for those who want it although it requires a tram and a bus (or a tram, three buses and a walk if you decide to do things differently like me). And that’s another Accor Hotel ticked off the list, a list which I’ll get updated and fixed so my two loyal blog readers can follow along. Anyway, all suitably uneventful and a pleasant evening.

December 8, 2024
Poznan – Thali Indian Restaurant

I very much like Indian food and have enjoyed tracking how it is served in countries around the world. I mean, it’s fairly obvious to say that the best Indian food that I’ve had is in India, but the service style and quality varies enormously by country and watching that evolution is interesting. There are some locations, such as when I went to Carcassonne with my friend Liam earlier this year, where there were no Indian restaurants at all (there had been one but it shut), but the situation has been improving in Poland for the years that I’ve been coming here.

It was a welcoming and cosy environment, some effort has been made here to do something nice without needing to spend a fortune. I was initially surprised that the English spoken by the staff was fluent, but then I realised that the staff actually don’t really speak a great deal of Polish. Three Polish groups came in during my time there and they switched to speaking English, with a number of reviews commenting on this. It’s an interesting dynamic, I know there is concern from some people in the UK that the British culture is being eroded through migration. I don’t happen to agree with that, but I don’t want to dwell on that here, but in Poznan it surprises me just how much is in English.

This is the chicken Kadai, with peshwari naan and rice, alongside a small Cobra. It was served quickly, after five minutes, which is usually not really a good sign but it was relatively quiet when I visited so it makes that more understandable. The chicken was tender, the sauce had some depth of flavour and the portion size was generous. The rice clumped slightly which is marginally sub-optimal, but tasted fine, whilst the naan was a little bit drab if I’m being honest although again served as a generous portion.

I thought that this was all quite agreeable, and it came to a total of £12 which is hardly unreasonable for curry, rice, naan and a beer. The service was polite without being over-attentive, which isn’t something that I particularly enjoy, although my friend Richard loves that kind of attention. The curry could have had a greater depth of flavour perhaps, but the chicken had some taste and it all came together well. The restaurant is one of a small chain across Poland, I’m not sure whether it’s a franchise type arrangement or they’re managed restaurants, but they’ve got a fair number of these.

Anyway, it was a welcoming and comfortable experience, good value for the money and everything felt efficient. The restaurant was clean and organised, with the thalis themselves looking interesting but it appeared that the curries they served as part of that were random and I try and avoid lamb. The reviews for restaurants are all generally positive and they seemed to be serving a fair few meals that were going out to takeaway drivers (to take to customers I mean, not eat themselves), so they seem to be doing well.

After that I popped to the Christmas market in Poznan, but my phone hasn’t dealt with this very well, but it was raining. I’m not really one for Christmas markets, so I didn’t linger for very long. Poznan isn’t far from the German border, so there was something of a degree of authenticity to this arrangement that I didn’t see in Preston last week…..

December 8, 2024
Wizz Air (Luton Airport to Poznan)

The sun was shining and Luton Airport glistened once again with its raw beauty and charm. I find this one of the better airports to fly through, it’s not necessarily the most decadent in many ways, but it does tend to have sufficient staff. It took just four minutes to get through security, although as ever I’d allowed for it to take an hour. The flight was the first one that I had booked with the All You Can Fly pass.

A quick visit to Big Smoke using my Priority Pass card, it’s a handy place to charge devices and sit in relative comfort and peace. The card really is a useful little thing and I like that they’re generous with how it can be used at a number of restaurants at some airports. The staff at Big Smoke are helpful, although they don’t like card holders sitting in the bar area which is where I’d naturally default to, just because it’s QR code only ordering there. Card holders get £18 to spend there, which covers these chicken tenders and this time I went for the Medicine Man IPA, which is hoppy, juicy and with a taste of pineapple. It was better than I remember it being a few weeks ago, but maybe I was just in a good mood. This location is very fast paced, but the staff never give the appearance of being panicked, even when they have some customers who seem to be quite challenging.

When the server came along, I mentioned that I would wait ten minutes for the lunch menu to start, but the server mentioned he’d take the order immediately and send it through to the kitchen and the chicken tenders arrived promptly. They taste decent and along with some craft beer, it’s a comfortable place to wait.

Then off to Avalon to use the Priority Pass card again. I could have also gone to the lounge and the Italian Nolito, but I felt this was more than enough. They stack the amount up to the full £18, but it was handy to have a sandwich for later on. Always friendly staff at Avalon and the coffee tastes good. Incidentally, I always thought that Cawston Press had some sort of presence in Norfolk, but reading the can (I don’t get out much) its Head Office and centre of operations is Kettering. Now, I know Kettering (permanently linked with James Acaster now) is perfectly acceptable as being the home of a drinks company, but it’s just not quite what I expected. If not Cawston, I’m sure they could have opened a little place in Aylsham.

Mine was the 12:25 to Poznan, so I meandered off to the gate content that I’d had a coffee, beer and chicken tenders. This seems to me to be the very basis of a balanced diet.

A view of the area in front of the airport that I’ve never much noticed when walking to the gate. I can’t say that this is exactly riveting, but it amused me for about three seconds.

And safely at the gate. Even though I did work for British Airways for a long time and so have a natural bias, they never really sorted out the efficiency of their check-in process, it varied enormously even within the same airport. Wizz Air are very precise, timely and it works for me to stay seated until the queue has nearly gone through and I join the back. No stress, no faffing about in groups and just easy boarding.

The aircraft sitting there ready. It’s G-WUKO, the same aircraft that took me to Belgrade a few weeks ago.

Boarding, again all efficient and most passengers worked out which door they had to board through.

I’m a little cheap and so I refuse to pay for seat selection, but the airline Gods smiled upon me and I ended up with a window seat anyway which was handy.

Safely in Poznan and it was raining, which made my decision for me, I wasn’t going to walk to the hotel. I rarely have much to write about these flights, partly because I fall asleep and partly because they’re so standard because they’ve got the processes sorted. The crew are welcoming, they do their swoop down the aircraft selling food and drink, then they have a go at selling other things and then we land. They’re very alert to safety issues and manage the take-off and landing processes well, they never really give me any cause for concern or annoyance.

December 8, 2024
Preston – The Grey Friar

For the sake of completion, since I wrote about my visit to the other JD Wetherspoon in Preston (the Twelve Tellers) before I went on a tour of the Preston pubs that are listed in the Good Beer Guide. This is the Grey Friar, a modern venue and JD Wetherspoon note about the name:

“This is named after the Franciscan monks (known as Grey Friars from the colour of their habit) who founded a nearby friary in the early 13th century. The friary was founded around 1220. It gave its name to Friargate, but was actually in Marsh Lane (formerly Friars Lane), between Lower Pitt Street and Ladywell Street. The Franciscans, or Grey Friars, are also remembered in the name of this pub.”

I went for the Hoppy Christmas from Conwy Brewery and it wasn’t great, it was well kept but there was no depth of taste here and an almost unpleasant bitterness. It was tolerable and I had thought it was the best looking of the three Christmas beers that they had. Not that I wanted a Christmas themed beer, it was just the only three guests that they had were all Christmas themed. Service was slightly sluggish, but I wasn’t in a rush and it was all polite and friendly enough.

As usual, I felt that need to have a look at the reviews as some of the angry ones at a Wetherspoon pub often entertain me as I don’t get out much.

“Ive been coming to Grayfiers for the past 10 years, being nearly 30 and recently been a great place to meet my friend who works at country hall. Tonight the lady serving me (assuming manager) decided to ID me. Since bring a regular, local and with contactless i no longer bring my wallet out. I dont look under 25 and have facial hair. Yet she refused to serve me. Although flattering ive not been ID’d anywhere now for over 3 years. Today was my last day i will step foot in greyfryers. Its also the last day all of my fellow club members will meet for socal gatherings in fryers. A short walk to 12 tellers and ive been served here. So i guess we will all meet here from now on.”

All because they ID’ed a 30 year old that they thought looked 25? I love a bit of drama.

“Went for breakfast before shopping . Food was served freezing cold, hard egg and what looked like a chewed up piece of bacon. I had to eat because we didn’t have time to wait for more food. I did complain and the young boy said “oh sorry” no offer of refund or free drink.”

I never really understand these, it looks awful, eat it and then wonder why no refund…

“I called in for some lunch this afternoon I will not be returning!!!! I have never felt so insulted and belittled in my life. My food didn’t arrive and when I questioned politely we’re my food was got a mouthful of abuse from a member of staff. I am 40 years of age and dined in pubs for years I have never been spoke to like that. I will not be returning and would recommend others do likewise, my family and friends will be.”

I mean, who knows, but how can “I questioned politely” go to a team member deciding to insult and belittle a customer? I’m always intrigued about the missing part of the story.

“Went with my friends to this weatherspoons today, ordered a glass of milk, mushy peas and a buiscuit. We waited around a hour for this order, before asking one of their workers where it was. He then said “oh do you want a glass of milk”, we said “yes of course” then my friend said “if there’s anything else on the order, could we have it”, he then said “I might do”. This was a very rude response and he completely lacked in customer service skills. We then decided to go to the till after waiting half a hour for our order, and they said “well we thought it was a joke, so you’ve been refunded” stating this in a very snotty and unprofessional way. Even the manager was very rude. I will never be returning to this weatherspoons again”

Oh, the Wetherspoon game, order a load of rubbish to a table, wonder why it isn’t brought out and then rate the pub 1/5 after trying to put the staff in an awkward position.

“We were enjoying ourselves when got told to turn our music off as they don’t have a license which I thought was unjustified as only we could hear it”

Good.

“I went to Preston for a city break. I usually go to Wetherspoons when in a new town, and headed straight there. All the staff were chatting to the locals – fair enough – got served my pint amid gales of laughter from all. Again – fair enough – after all I’m a stranger. But then I realised they were laughing at me, because I’d ordered a Carlsberg and not a real ale.”

If that is true, that is horrendous, although Wetherspoon seem to sell a lot of lager, so it seems a bit odd. Anyway, I digress and I’m pleased to note that no-one commented on my Christmas drink purchase, so all was well. It’s not the most exciting of interiors, unlike their sister pub not far down the road, but it’s cheap, cheerful and sizeable. A reliable pub and there’s cheap coffee, it’s one of those which is charging £1.04 for unlimited hot drinks at the moment. What a time to be alive and all that….

December 6, 2024
Liverpool – Lion Tavern (Good Beer Guide)

I’ve been to this pub before, but I felt that a revisit was needed as my last time here was before I decided to try and visit every Good Beer Guide pub in the country. There’s some rail heritage to the Lion, it’s named after the locomotive that worked the Liverpool to Manchester Railway. This locomotive was made in 1838 and it’s now on display at Liverpool Museum, with this pub opening in 1840.

Interesting even from the exterior and the pub is listed on the CAMRA Historic Interior register and they note that:

“This richly appointed pub has a layout very similar to others on Merseyside in this guide, namely the Stork Hotel, Birkenhead, and the Prince Arthur, Liverpool. It has an L-shaped corridor wrapping round the public bar on the street corner, and with spaces leading off it. A plan of 1903 shows the public bar as now, but in 1915 the Lion expanded into the building next door. The corridor was then created along with a news room (so-named in the window glass) in the newly acquired area, and a lounge beneath a skylight (the dividing walls were, sadly, taken down in 1967). The corridor has a mosaic floor and a lovely Art Nouveau tiled dado, above which is a timber and etched glass screen, with openings allowing service to drinkers in the corridor. The back fitting in the public bar seems to be Victorian: the dado tiling here is to the same design as in the corridor. There is a fine set of old carved screens in the front windows carrying advertising, something that is occasionally seen in Scotland but rarely in England.”

One of the entrances, I like pubs with character like this and there are plenty of them in Liverpool.

The beer range which I thought was reasonable with some quality ales there to choose from.

One of the two bars, I was surprised by the lack of customers although there were a couple in the other side.

I went for half a pint of the Dark Flagon from Wily Fox Brewery, which I’ve had a couple of times before and enjoyed. It’s an excellent cask beer, there’s an initial hit of chocolate and then a rum finish. It’s smooth, decadent and just a little sweet.

It’s a beautiful pub and although it was quieter than I expected, the atmosphere was welcoming and the member of bar staff was friendly and engaging. It’s very well reviewed on-line, although I always feel the need to have a little look at the negative reviews to see what excitement has taken place, but there’s not much other than one customer who said he reported the manager to the police for being rude to him. I can imagine that the police were thrilled. The pub prides itself on its free jukebox, but a couple of customers are irritated that their choices have been deleted, but other than that, plenty of happy customers.

The real ale range seemed reasonable and interesting, the pub had character, the service was friendly and the surroundings were comfortable. All rather lovely and I can see why it’s listed in the Good Beer Guide.

December 6, 2024
Wizz Air : All You Can Fly Pass

I wrote about this pass before when I thought about getting it a couple of months ago and then didn’t as there were a few unknowns about it. I’ve followed numerous Facebook and on-line groups about the pass and it’s a useful programme provided you can be quite flexible. Fortunately, I can be, so I’ve taken the gamble on Wizz Air not going bust and have bought the pass. I suspect that quite a lot of things will likely now go wrong with it such as encountering payment issues when buying tickets, but I think it’s an interesting thing to see how it works out and whether it might save some money or lead to some unexpected adventures.

The pass came to just under £500 and allows users to book flights for £9 each, but they must be departing in the next three days. Effectively, they’re just trying to get rid of excess inventory. I’ve seen a lot of people unhappy with the pass, but I think they were mainly hoping for better availability from some smaller airports or more guarantee of return flights. Since I live my life in a state of slight chaos, this situation doesn’t overly concern me. With travel, I have a generally Zen like calm that my friend Liam has to life generally.

Anyway, using the pass I’ve started with a return flight to Poznan departing tomorrow and returning the day after (I kind of need to be back, although it’s not essential if I can’t be), just when Storm Darragh might well prove to be problematic. Well, what could possibly go wrong….. I suspect I’ll be posting what’s gone wrong quite quickly, but I’m always one for a travel adventure and I wanted to be part of this.

December 5, 2024